Another Soldier In The Port War
While the rest of the country’s major ports spent the decade leveraging private capital into gleaming new port facilities and expanded economic activity for their states, South Carolina chose to cling to an outdated “total government control” model that cost us billions of dollars in capital investment and thousands of new jobs.
Not surprisingly, that approach didn’t work.
The Port of Charleston’s competitive position has fallen off a cliff in recent years, and now that the economy has slowed, things are getting even worse.
Simply put, we had a tremendous opportunity staring us in the face, people.
And yet South Carolina’s leaders did what they always do in that situation … stared back at it with a not-so-bright look on their faces.
Last month, the S.C. State Ports Authority (SPA)’s biggest customer – Maersk Sealand – pulled out of Charleston, dealing a crippling blow to an already hobbled institution.
And while the SPA is frantically trying to get Maersk back, the woeful mismanagement of our state’s most competitive asset has finally begun to draw the criticism it deserves.
The breaking point appears to have been when SPA officials awarded themselves $708,000 worth of bonuses according to a “pre-determined performance incentive” program, which is curious seeing as the SPA operates as a state-sponsored monopoly.
Sort of like our Department of Education – which produces similarly sh*tty results.
Anyway, Senate President Glenn McConnell, for one, has had enough.
From the Charleston Post and Courier:
“Their business is down, they are in danger of losing their biggest account; that’s the record of the port at this hour,” McConnell said. “There is no increase in economic activity for the community, but they reward themselves for a profit on a state monopoly.”
Yeah … that pretty much sums it up, people.
McConnell says he’s filing legislation that would require any future port bonuses to be approved at a public meeting, which is good.
What would be great is a bill that required the SPA to move into the 21st Century by permitting public-private partnerships, which S.C. leaders have been repeatedly told must be implemented in order for our state’s port facilities to remain competitive.
We haven’t permitted them, though. And so we’re not competitive.
On multiple fronts, South Carolina needs to get its head out of its government-controlled arse.
The port is just the most obvious example of that.
We cannot afford to stare stupidly in the face of the next economic opportunity – whenever that may come along.
Comments
By Who is to blame for our port's socialistic status? on January 4th, 2009 at 11:33 am
I just don’t get it. Gov. Sanford supposedly has libertarian leanings – and has the ability and power to appoint board members to the SPA that could do his will. Yet he can’t even get the tiny little Port Royal property sold. Why is he so incompetent?
We supposedly have a “Republican” controlled legislature- but let’s face it and judge them by their inactions- They are RINO’s. They feed the out-dated socialist port model with our tax dollars as evidenced by the +160 million dollars for a port access road for our 4th container terminal that we simply do not need.
Today we have 3 out of date container terminals in Charleston – operating at less than 50% capacity. We do not have the ability to load double stack intermodal trains in Charleston and probably never will. This is a fatal flaw we cannot overcome.
Savannah and Norfolk understand the shipping business – the goal is to handle containers and be able to ship them into the Midwest markets by rail because it is quicker and cheaper – you just can not do this effectively by trucks.
Changing the SPA’s bonus structure might make headlines but it will turn our port system into an “asset” by any stretch of the imagination.
By flipnut on January 4th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I agree, the port should go private. But you have to do it in a way that each terminal does not become a stand alone island, with their own polices, systems, and requirements. Norfolk is the biggest example, getting containers in and out is a huge pain due to the different systems vs coming into Charleston or Savannah.
But you miss some very important factors outside of the SPA’s control. Charleston is not the first US port of call for most vessels running north or south on the east coast. New York and Savannah are normally the first ports of call, so Charleston loses all the containers going to inland ports via rail. They get off at New York or Norfolk if the ship is southbound, and in Savannah if the ship is north bound.
Also, Atlanta is the biggest southern market, and the closest port is Savannah. It just cost more to bring a container into Charleston and deliver it to Atlanta, Alabama, or Tennessee. So shippers like me, tell the steam ship lines we want service into Savannah above all else. Charleston is a regional port servicing SC, and most of NC because this is the area where Charleston offers the lowest inland trucking cost.
The only thing that may change Charleston’s regional status is building dedicated rails lines into all the terminals for Norfolk Southern and CSX. Without the rails, Charleston will always be handicapped by geography.